UNITED NATIONS – Conditions in many parts of the world force women and girls to bear the burden of carrying out everyday chores for their families and communities, keeping many of them from getting even a basic education, the Vatican's U.N. nuncio said Oct. 6.

Earlier this year protesters in a small Guatemala village blockaded a giant silver mine operated by a Canadian company and for a month stood their ground despite being regularly tear-gassed by paramilitary police.

VATICAN CITY - The United States and North Korea must return to the negotiating table and focus on improving the quality of life of their people rather than on the might of their advanced weaponry, said a former Vatican diplomat.

WASHINGTON – The passage of a United Nations treaty banning the possession of nuclear weapons comes at a time when the majority of world's nations are frustrated with the slow pace of nuclear disarmament.

YANGON, Myanmar – Church officials have expressed disappointment over the refusal of Myanmar's government to grant visas to three members of a U.N. fact-finding mission to investigate alleged human rights abuses by security forces against the Rohingya minority.

VATICAN CITY – Too often, national and international policies leave migrant children at the mercy of traffickers and sexual predators and are signs of a widespread failure to protect the innocent, a Vatican official said.

UNITED NATIONS – If left unchecked, warming, pollution, and acidification of the world's oceans will have drastic socio-ecological consequences, particularly for people who depend on the water for their livelihoods, according to speakers at the June 5-9 Ocean Conference at the United Nations.

UNITED NATIONS – The message of peace Mary gave to three shepherd children 100 years ago at Fatima, Portugal, is still timely and urgent in 2017 and is an ongoing reminder that flashes of the divine are revealed in unexpected places, according to speakers at a May 12 U.N. panel.